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Page 144
uttered an exclamation of irritation. In his concern for his mount, he had forgotten Alinor. He turned to apologize for not lifting her into the saddle and saw that she, too, was remounted.
How kind of her, Ian said to himself, to spare him embarrassment, but somewhere inside an uneasy feeling that she wished to avoid having him touch her woke. To a certain small degree that was true. Now that the violent action had subsided and the most necessary reactions to it had been taken care of, Alinor wanted to avoid Ian's notice. She knew he was sure to begin wondering how she had made herself vulnerable to abduction by so inefficient and ill-armed a troop. Alinor needed a little time to decide what to say to him, because she had no intention of confessing her true purpose. Ian would not be any more approving of the idea of waylaying and possibly murdering a king's messenger than Simon would have been. Thus, she not only needed an excuse for being out of Roselynde Keep so close to evening for herself, but also some explanation of what so large a number of huntsmen were doing wandering around when no hunt was planned.
The latter was easy enough to explain as soon as Alinor's fertile mind concentrated on it. The huntsmen were out marking game for killing when they should be needed for the wedding feast. The animals would be kept close by laying out fodder for them. What she herself was doing abroad was less easily explained. Alinor thought of and discarded a number of lame excuses while the troop finished gathering up the corpses, mounted, and got started back toward Roselynde.
Actually, Alinor had more time to think than she had expected, because Ian had arrangements of his own to make. Obviously it would be too late, by the time he had escorted Alinor back home, to hope to catch the outlaws that night. Nonetheless, some men had to return to the farm in case the Welshmen came back with

 
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